On the last “The Stinger Scale” we went into the infamous Sting versus Jeff Hardy match from TNA Victory Road 2011.
We’ll delve into more Sting in TNA but let’s go classic with WCW Great American Bash 1990 as the Icon takes on “Nature Boy” Ric Flair for the NWA World title!
The New Revolution
This event was significant for three notable reasons. First, it’s the last Great American Bash under the NWA banner—after this event, the WCW was flying solo. Secondly, this was the Undertaker’s final WCW event as Mean Mark Callous.
Ole Anderson told the future Dead Man he wouldn’t draw in the business and months later he was the Undertaker.
There seems to be an ongoing theme with higher-ups in WCW underestimating the value of talent only for them to really take off outside of the company. It’s just interesting how often this happens during the 90s.
Finally, we have Sting’s first World championship. This was a pretty important show for the timeline.
We’ve got some shenanigans outside the ring with Ole Anderson being handcuffed to El Gigante. See, everyone was tired of the Four Horsemen’s sh** and WCW took all of the measures.
Ole’s tied to a 7-foot giant and outside of the ring Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog, and the Steiner Brothers are all on standby.
The Horsemen weren’t coming to save the World title this time. Well, not unless Arn Anderson pulled the fire alarm in the back and rushed in to help Slick Ric.
NWA World Heavyweight Title: Sting vs. Ric Flair [c] – WCW Great American Bash 1990
Most of this match was Sting no-selling Flair’s best offense while getting taken off guard by his dirty tactics. Those tactics had way more impact because they allowed Flair to target the legs and really slow down the Stinger.
Oh yes, this is easy 90s Sting. The youngster had a motor on him and the pace in this match was perfect. It wasn’t molasses slow with a crawling build but it wasn’t fast to the point of no story being told. It was just a little faster than a TV match meant to eat up time.
I guess you could say that there was a sense of urgency from both men but it was like Sting trying to overwhelm Flair with his speed and power and Flair trying to end this match before his challenger kicks into his highest gear.
The Stinger’s highest gear kicks in when the pace is frantic or when there’s a momentum shift in his favor. Flair kept cutting Sting off after he’d gotten some momentum but couldn’t really put him away.
As a result, he often ended up spending a little too much time trying to wear down his for only for him to recover.
This is why those Vader matches were so important, he battered Sting until that highest gear seemed very unlikely. Flair allows for too much breathing room and chances to swing the momentum. It’s a very different approach from Vader smothering his opponents.
The match spilled to the outside several times with most of the encounters in No Man’s Land going to Sting. You would figure Flair would’ve faired better against Sting on the outside but that was not the case.
He did get the best of Stinger on the ramp—yes, the glorious ramp connected to the ring, folks. However, even that was a pretty even theater of war for these two.
The match ends in an odd fashion with Sting getting the inside cradle on a Figure Four Leglock. While it was a clean as hell win that the fans went wild for it was a bit anticlimactic and seemed out of place.
The Stinger wasn’t beaten down to the point that an inside cradle was all he had left.
If anything, he had enough in the tank for several Stinger Splashes and a Scorpion Deathlock or two if necessary. The roll-up seems like something Flair would use after getting spanked for the bulk of the match.
Stinger Scale: 4.25 out of 5 Stingers
While basic in execution by today’s athletic standards, this match did everything it was supposed to do without any extra hoopla and danger. It was straight-up, southern-style big match where Flair and Sting played their roles to the max. Sting had all the cards on his side and made this his game pace-wise.
Meanwhile, this match wasn’t exactly fair to Flair but the Horsemen had become a problem at this point.
With the odds stacked more against the World champion than the challenger, Ric Flair would’ve needed his Royal Rumble 1992 performance to get out of this mess with the belt!
I love that the crowd was really into the match and it made the no-selling by Sting enjoyable. If they were no-selling the no-selling like “Nah, we’re not giving it to you” that would’ve been grounds to move on to something else to get the crowd on board.
However, they were here for the no-selling and that’s just great. There was a hiccup with the camera transitioning away while Flair and Sting were in the corner but overall, it was shot very well. I love the packed crowd here.
Roughly 14,000 fans in Baltimore to see “The New Revolution” and just how this show was shot and set up without the extra ringside embellishments and crowd space made this look like a wrestling show.
The main event was just what you’d want to end the show on so big 4.25 out of 5 for this Sting vs. Flair bout!
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